This is the Grand Courtroom at the Constitutional Court of Korea where the impeachment trial
against President Park Geun-hye is taking place.
The first session of the official hearing on Tuesday closed after nine minutes as the
president decided not to attend.
The court's review of the impeachment motion against President Park - whose presidential
powers currently remain suspended - is based on article 65 of the Korean Constitution.
Key issues under review by the constitutional court trickle down to five categories.
Whether President Park violated the people's sovereignty and the rule of law by allowing
her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil to intervene in state policies, forced donations from large
companies, and leaked confidential documents.
Whether she abused her presidential power and infringed on the freedom of the press...
by allowing Choi to meddle in making personnel appointments... and undermining press freedom
by cracking down on her critics.
Negligence of duty to protect the lives of the people... by neglecting to respond efficiently
to a ferry disaster in 2014 that killed more than 300 people.
And, other criminal charges including bribery.
"The requests they touched base with each side about streamlining charges, very early.
They set the dates for the first trial hearing very early, the gap between the first hearing
and second hearing is only two days.
So, I think in all of this scheduling we can see them pressing for a speedy resolution."
Do all five of these allegations need to be proven true for the impeachment decision to
be made?
"If the constitutional court finds even one allegation sufficient for impeachment, even
if four other allegations may not be true, one allegation is proven true and that's sufficient
enough for impeachment, the court will go ahead and impeach her."
Two more hearings have been scheduled for Thursday and next Tuesday...
during which some of the key suspects in the case - mostly current and former presidential
aides - have been asked to appear before the court.
So, by when can we expect the constitutional court - which may take up to six months to
review an impeachment case - to make its final decision?
"My understanding of the majority view is most people expect the decision before March
13th.
President Park Han-chul's term expires at the end of January.
And, I believe that he will make every effort progress the trial as much as possible before
he retires."
"Looking at how fast the court is moving now I think the chief justice definitely wants
to issue something before the end of January.
I think that is possible because much of evidence at least as it has come out in news reports
have been amassed to a sufficient degree."
If fewer than six of the nine judges rule in favor of the impeachment, President Park
will be reinstated... if at least six say "aye" the 11th president of the Republic of
Korea will permanently be removed from office...
the very first in the nation's history.
That means Koreans will head to the polls much sooner than the currently scheduled December
2017 as the nation has sixty days from the date of the constitutional court's decision
to hold a presidential election.